Sequel to “Alibi.com” (2017), “Alibi.com 2” was released this week in theaters. On this occasion, here are five things to know about this comedy directed, scripted and performed by Philippe Lacheau.
Alibi.com 2 by Philippe Lacheau
With Philippe Lacheau, Elodie Fontan, Tarek Boudali…
What is it about ? After closing his Alibi.com agency and promising Flo that he would never lie to her again, Greg’s new life has become quiet, too quiet… Not for long! When he decides to propose to Flo in marriage, Greg is up against the wall and must resolve to present his family. But between her crook father and her ex-charm movie actress mother, it is very likely to ruin her future union. He therefore has no choice but to reopen his agency with his former accomplices for an ultimate Alibi and to find more presentable false parents…
Sylvia Kristel as reference
Capture
The central subject of the film being that Greg’s parents are not presentable, Philippe Lacheau imagined that his mother was an icon of charm of the 80s and 90s. His reference was thus Sylvia Kristel, the star of the erotic films Emmanuelle:
“But we had to stay within the framework of eroticism and not fall into something vulgar. To avoid this from the casting, we thought of Arielle, whose personality immediately evokes an image of elegance and delicious eccentricity.”
“Arielle is a beautiful woman who accepts her little follies and her natural shift. Whatever she does or says, it can never become salacious or embarrassing. I reassured her by explaining that it was a comedy and that everything would be suggested”says the filmmaker.
A first lucrative opus
Canal Studio
Released in 2017, Alibi.com did very well at the box office since the comedy achieved 3.6 million admissions in France. This is the 9th biggest hit of this year, behind Star Wars, episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Despicable Me 3, Mad Raid, Coco, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Baby Boss, Fast and Furious 8 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge.
Birth of the project
Enlil Elbanna
Before choosing to center the plot on Greg’s parents, whom he dares not introduce to Flo and his future in-laws, Philippe Lacheau and his co-writers had considered all sorts of options. The reason ? They did not want to disappoint the many spectators who had liked the first opus:
“Since the Alibi.com agency closed its doors at the end of the initial film, we had to find THE right reason that would oblige Greg to reopen it. Some ideas that we had discussed took us away emotionally from Flo’s family and the couple that she trains with Greg, so we dropped them.”
“As we had witnessed the meeting of Greg and Flo in the first part, it was natural that they marry in the second, and that we start from this ceremony to imagine everything that could harm his preparation and its smooth running”recalls the director, continuing:
“That’s where the idea came from that Greg’s parents are really not presentable, and that they risk ruining the best day of Flo’s life. The only solution Greg finds is to reopen the agency one last time, to introduce fake parents to Flo and her future in-laws.”
The Bouncy Castle Prank
Enlil Elbanna
The bouncy castle gag whose air pump is out of order, and which ends up exploding throwing a child into the garden next door, was the most difficult trick to solve. Philippe Lacheau says:
“We placed a dummy of a little boy in a cannon and when we fired, the neighbors in the neighborhood who didn’t know what we were doing were horrified, because it really looked like a kid flying through the air! had to grope a little to adjust the power of the shot, too strong at the beginning, but after several tries the dummy ended up landing in the right place!”
Revamped brawl sequence
Enlil Elbanna
Philippe Lacheau dropped a fight scene between Greg’s parents. In it, Apolline, furious that her ex-husband had slept with her best friend, had to break down a bathroom door with a sledgehammer, then reach through to grab Gérard by his underwear, which had to be distend. The opportunity to wink at The Shining, when Jack Nicholson destroys the door with an axe.
The director remembers: “But each step was so problematic that it didn’t work. So we reworked the scene showing Arielle dragging Gerard on the floor, while he tries to dig his nails into the parquet to hold himself back. This little comma allows you to parody the clichés of horror movies, but in a simpler and more dynamic way. And viewers react well to seeing it.”